India's collected 71.3 percent more direct tax in the first two months of fiscal 2008/09 from a year ago, the government said on Wednesday, as receipts from individuals and companies grew strongly.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statement corporate tax receipts in the April-May period were up by 68 percent to 81.26 billion rupees ($1.9 billion), while income tax collections grew 73 percent to 146.9 billion rupees.

Total direct taxes for the two-month period stood at 228.4 billion rupees.

"The robust growth in direct taxes has been achieved despite larger refund payouts at 90.14 billion rupees," the board said.

Last week, the finance minister urged the board to raise the annual target for direct taxes to 4 trillion rupees from the budget estimate of 3.65 trillion rupees made in February.

The cash-strapped government is looking to higher revenue growth to fund a massive farm debt waiver scheme and a rural jobs project, and foot a surging subsidy bill for food and oil while adhering to its fiscal deficit targets. (Reporting by Rajkumar Ray, Editing by Mark Williams)